Penguins Aston-Reese pays the dues, St Louis sings the Blues; Pittsburgh wins 6 – 1

The Penguins’ Power Play (PP) was perfect and their Goalie was near perfect as our surging sphenisciform-seabirds swamped St Louis 6 – 1. St. Louis coach Craig Berube must have felt like actor Lloyd Bridges in the movie airplane as his team picked the wrong night to take penalties.

Alexander Steen opened up that which must have seemed a comedy errors to St Louis fans by clipping Pittsburgh’s hot hand Bryan Rust with a high stick right after the opening face-off, giving our pesky Penguins the PP 9 seconds into the game. Thirty-nine seconds later Sidney Crosby started the goal parade. Crosby slid a quick pass to Phil Kessel in the attacking Left Wing (LW) corner. Kessel circled up to the top of the LW circle before drifting in toward the net, trying to draw open the Blues Defense. As a slight cushion opened up, Kessel threaded a pass down low to Patric Hornqvist at the left of the Blues goal crease. Just as Kessel changed it up last game against Detroit, Hornqvist added a wrinkle to his game. Rather than just try and stuff the puck into the net, he slid a cross-crease pass to Crosby. And just like Kessel’s opening tally last game the change in modus operandi left the Penguins’ opponents fooled. Crosby was wide open on the other side of the crease to knock in a bunny goal.

At 3:24 of the second period, Steen decided to help the Penguin cause again by interfering with Dominik Simon. After St Louis defenders stifled Pittsburgh’s top PP unit, the Penguins’ secondary unit took over. Blues goalie Jake Allen didn’t want to let Steen take all the credit for helping the Penguins. Rather than letting a Penguin dump-in roll around the boards to an opened Defenseman, Allen cut the puck off and reversed it into the teeth of the black and gold fore-check. Derick Brassard and Tanner Pearson fought to gain control of the puck. Pearson looked up the attacking RW wall but Marcus Pettersson was covered.  However, Juuso Riikola was opened Center Point (CP) and Pearson found him with a pass. Riikola drifted a bit before winding up to next Christmas and hammered a heavy shot past Allen for the first goal of his NHL career. Jake Guentzel fished the biscuit out of the net to give the Finnish rookie his souvenir.

Roughly 2 minutes later Zach Aston – Reese got our locals their 1st even strength goal of the evening. Brian Dumoulin started the play by jumping up into the attacking RW and passing the puck behind the net to a wide open Crosby. Crosby bumped the puck back to Kris Letang at CP. Letang wasted little time with a hard pass down to Aston – Reese to the left of Allen. Penguins ‘ announcers called the play Crosby-esque as the rookie redirected the pass into the net and the route was on.

At 9:18 Jay Bouwmeester hooked Aston-Reese and 7 seconds later Hornqvist extended the Penguin lead to 4 – 0 with their 3rd PP Goal (PPG). Crosby won the Face-Off (FO) to Letang who drifted CP before passing to Kessel. Kessel returned the puck back to Letang. Letang wristed it on goal and Hornqvist redirected it passed Allen, chasing the Blues net minder from his home.

Jordan Binnington was summoned to relieve Allen and try and stem the Penguins’ tide. The change in goal kindled a fire in the Blues and they tried to fight back. They started to control the play. Fortunately for the Penguins, Matt Murray continued his journey back to being Murray as he stoned Blues shooters. Finally at 14:16 of the second period, with a relentless attack that overwhelmed the Penguins defense, turning them inside out, Former Penguin David Perron was left wide open and unaccounted for to Murray’s right. Murray had been pulled to the left to face the initial shot and tried his best to get back but it would be his only blemish of the night. Perron got the Blues on the board.

It wasn’t going to be enough. This was not going to be the Blues night. At 3:05 Guentzel restored the Penguins’ 4 goal lead. Crosby drove the puck into the Blues RW corner, turned back around and found Dumoulin at the point. Dumoulin ripped the puck on goal and Guentzel waved his magic wand and it was 5 – 1, the tuxedo clad birds again.

After the play Joel Edmundson got stupid. He started a fight with Aston-Reese. Edmundson did win the fight, but his Blues lost the war. Edmundson was tagged with an additional roughing call and the Penguins once again went to work on the PP. Kessel got the puck from Letang and dangled along the attacking LW boards. He froze the Blues defense with a look toward Hornqvist, who was in the same position as he was on the Penguins’ opening goal. The deception opened up a soft spot for Evgeni Malkin to drift into. Malkin created a little more space by tapping a Blues defenders stick out of the way before Kessel’s pass reached him. Going down to one knee Malkin ripped the puck past Binnington for the Penguins’ final goal.

What was it that Ringo Star sang?
“You have to pay your dues before you sing the Blues
And you know it don’t come easy”

Well, Rust and Aston – Reese paid the dues and St Louis sang the Blues. In fact Aston-Reese was an Assist shy of a Gordie Howe hat trick, missing only an Assist. And even though the score board made it look like it came easy, it really didn’t. 4 of the 6 goals were PPGs and the Blues out shot the Penguins.

Malkin’s goal was the Penguin’s 4th PPG out of 4 PPs. Although our boys of winter have gone 4 for 4 on the power play at home a couple of times, this was the first time on their 51 year history that they went 4 for 4 on the road.

For the second straight game, the Penguins’ coaching staff was seen coaching between plays with the players who had come off of the ice. If this really is turning into a habit, this could be a great thing. For the 2nd straight game, a Penguins’ forward changed his normal attack and it resulted in a goal. There are some good things going on right now. However, I am not going to throw away my poisoned pen just yet. Mike Sullivan et al are doing the right things but there is still way too much time to return to Hyde.

Next up, Minnesota as Pittsburgh closes out 2018 on New Years’ Eve.

Keep it Rolling Pens!!!

Odds and Sods

With Columbus not playing, Pittsburgh crept to within 1 point of 2nd in the Metropolitan, making good use of the game in hand they had. Unfortunately, New York kept pace as the Islanders shutout Toronto 4 – 0.

The usual suspects, Crosby, Kessel, and Letang all had 3 point nights.

Not to be completely out done our Baby Penguins in Wilkes Barre – Scranton (WBS) stomped the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 7 – 3. It would appear to have been a real team effort as scoring was spread out among many players. Teddy Blueger had 2 goals, Adam Johnson, Jimmy Hayes, and Chad Rhuwedel (sent down for some conditioning) had 1 Goal and 1 Assist. Sam Lafferty had 2 Assists. New-comer Ben Sexton, obtained in an AHL trade from the Belleville Senators also had 2 Goals. Lafferty and Sexton finished the night +4.

WBS didn’t have an easy time in their victory either. Anthony Angello, Garrett Wilson, and Joseph Cramarossa all had dances with Phantoms. Wilson and Cramarossa both earned game misconducts for their altercations.